Welcome my dear,
This is my second build here on Mobafire, featuruing Vlad, The Crimson Reaper.

Vlad is a unique type of mage. That's because giving him AP items, will also grant him extra HP, and giving him extra HP will give him extra AP, due to his passive.

You may wonder what is better to give him first. And that's of course AP, because the change AP<->HP is proportionally better on AP.

Well, as i said with in Twitch build, I see too many summoners playing their carachters UNNATURALLY, I'll explain:

I see too many people giving Vlad a Mejai and other ap NUKE/CARRY items early like Rabadon's. That's because these people are forcing Vlad to be a nuker, because they are unsatisfacted of Vladdy's damage output.

To be a good Vlad, you must UNDERSTAND and ACCEPT, that he's not a carry, but a tanky mage, like Ryze or Swain! These guys (Ryze apart, he's another unique mage) must be played like tanky mages, building both AP and defense. Giving Vlad AP carry items is good, but not the best choice!

Any pro guide will give you AT LEAST one defense item, unless your hero is a pure carry like Katarina or Ezreal (maybe), but even in those cases sometimes a defense item it's required.

Take a look at the hero, at his abilities. You will notice that he doesn't use mana. His techs. mainly consume HP, exception made for Trasfusion and his ulti. Because of this, your focus should be survivability. Spellvamp is perfect for this porpose.

Pretty straight chapter:

Marks of Insight for flat magic pen.
Seals of Vitality for health/lv18 (replacable for flat Health seals)
Glhyphs of Celerity for cooldown/lv18 x7 + Focus for flat cooldown
Quints of Vitality for flat health

9-0-21

This is the standard mage mastery page, but if you want to be even more safe, try 0-9-21.

BUT DO NOT WASTE MASTERY POINTS ON MANA/MANA REGEN MASTERIES or on HP REGEN based on max mana, this is kinda waste on Vlad :).

Really personal choice with Teleport and Flash. i like flash on vlad, cause it will grant you a solid escape mechanism with sanguigne pool. And teleport will let you be everywhere you want, guardianing a turret or helping teammates in fight :)

My focus is Transfusion first. This is Vlad's main weapon, and one of the best last hitting tools of the game. At lv9, u will be able to spam it every 2/3 secs with all the cooldwon you have. Sanguigne pool is mainly treated like an escape move. Pretty efficent (IMHO). Sanguigne pool + flash is a solid escape combination.
Your tide of blood is not really strong nowadays, use it with brain, mainly agaisnt minions and in team fight when trans. is not ready, because it will temporally improve your transfusion healing.
His ultimate is great, though with tooooooo high cooldown. It is an AoE spell, that will make the enemy take % more damage from allied attacks, and then will explode dealing damage.
This is the only case in which Vlad can be a nuker:

ulti+ transfusion+ tide of blood+ transfusion -> ulti booooooom

But remember, Vlad is not a nuker.

Remember also that Sanguigne pool is one of the most annoying ability in the game, infact that skill will prevent you from taking any damage for 2 secs, even from ultis )like Katarina's, Caitlin's (!!!), Karthus's (!!!!!!!) etc...), but of course there are exceptions: Veigair will surely stun you even in that blood pool with his cage, and his ulti can take you down in one hit (if u buff early Ap nuke items, not this case :) ) and also Shen can deal some damage. Ignite will burn you down while you are in pool mode so watch out!

Starter:
Boots of Speed + 3x Hpotion

or

Doran's Shield

or

Amplyfing Tome + 1x Hpotion


As always, it's up to you. Boots will let you have sufficient speed to perfom a Transfusion harrassment more efficently, because enemies will normally run when they see you will are approaching to perfom your main spam. Once you get enough gold for the Revolver, clear up enemy minions and go base to purchase it. This will let you stay in lane for REAL longer.

Rember that until lv9, you are not really able to spam your Q (Trasfusion), to 'till that moment, safe it for last hitting, and secondary for harrassments AND PLAY SAFE! Try to not get zoned, but even if u get, whenever u get Revolver, u can start taking a breath of health, because it won't leave you in a low hp situation.

The rest, is up to you. Remember what i said about his abilities, use your Transfusion to spam everything, DON'T USE YOUR SANGUIGNE POOL FOR HARRASSMENT, use your Tides of Bloods to clear minions waves,coupled with Transfusion (but do not spam it, because it will REALLY lower your hp, even with Will of the Ancient), and be smart on using your ulti, because it has a high cooldown.

These items will let you be a 3500 and more hp with balanced defense and AP!

If u see that the enemy is stacking magic res., u may want to replace Abysaal Scepter with a Void Staff,and Ionian's with Sorcerer's Boots but this will leave you without magic defense, not recommended.

If you want to play more carry-like, i'll provide those items too, in my second Vlad section.
Early Haunting Guise, Sorcerer's, Rabadon's and Rylai will let you carry quite good (but as i said, not the best choice)

If u want to try an alternative to Will of the ancient, u can try Spirit Visage. this item is pretty good as well, but with Spirit i suggest taking Sorcere's because your early dagame output will be REALLY unconsistent (even for me).

In my second Vlad build, i also suggest changing Haunting GUise with a situational item late game.